AY Ballet Presents a Beautiful Rendition of Adon Olam

The AY Ballet, based in Chesapeake, VA, is a school for professional ballet training founded by Andrei Yemelianov, who uses a method and syllabus based on the traditions of Russian Classical Ballet.

 

Born in Ukraine, Andrei began his ballet training at the Kiev State Choreographic College at the age of ten. He completed the full curriculum with the major in “Choreographic Art”. Andrei was granted the qualification of “Ballet Dancer” and after graduation he danced with Donetsk Ballet, Richmond Ballet, Jewish Theater “Mazeltov“. Andrei also has appeared as a guest artist with numerous companies and schools throughout the United States.

 

In 1998 Andrei began his new career as a teacher and a choreographer working at Academie de Ballet and Masterworks. His students are dancing nationwide with companies like Nashville Ballet and Ballet West as well as local dance companies such as TR Dance and VBT.

Andrei explains his approach to dance on his web site:

There are lots of different definitions of dance you can find and only one thing connects them all, expression. It doesn’t matter if it is self expression or just expressive gesture without it dance loses its originality.

 

As my best argument to all philosophers, critics and historians I’ll go to the roots of dance and use the oldest historical document we possess. Torah (or Old Testament of the Christian Bible) shows dance as expression of joy using words like spin, jump, twirl, stamp, leap, and skip. No matter if you are planning to become a professional dancer or taking dance for fun don’t be timid or apathetic, rather be expressive inspiring other to dance. After all we dance because it naturally makes us happy.

While the AY Ballet is not a Jewish ballet school, it seems to be focusing on Jewish themes, such as Jewish weddings, the Exodus from Egypt, the covenant with Abraham, and Jewish songs. We'll share some excerpts of their performances relating to Purim and Pesach at the appropriate time of the year. Now, we're sharing a beautiful performance by the AY Ballet of the Shabbat hymn Adon Olam, with vocals in Hebrew and English.

Enjoy!